What Can We Expect From The Portland Trail Blazers During Summer League? | Danny & Dusty

What Can We Expect From The Portland Trail Blazers During Summer League? | Danny & Dusty

Uh 95 coming next week, too. So, yeah, stick stick close to the river. Stick close to the pool. I’ve already looked and I’ll be in Vegas over the next couple days, leaving on Friday. It’s 110 while I’m down there. So, it’s not 120. I’ve been there during summer league. It’s not fun. You can’t go outside. It’s usually one of the hottest weeks of the year. It’s like want to go to the I think we hit like 120 or 121 one year. It was like a It was the hottest Vegas had ever been kind of a deal. It’s like want to go to the pool, look at the hotties. No, none are sitting there because it’s too hot. Well, I’ve also been there when we had a torrential flood, flash flood. Uh, and I’ve also been there when we had an earthquake. Yeah. So, it’s been uh Vegas has been the best Vegas experience I ever had though, is uh the what what’s the the Pokemon cell phone game? Pokemon Go. Yeah. Yeah. That came out like I want to say the week before Summer League. It was it 2014. There was like 30 of us staying at this mansion in this gated neighborhood Airbnb style. And uh we were all pretty hammered. And it was two o’clock at night and uh you know it’s 85 degrees so it’s perfectly fine outside. And we are rolling through this million-dollar neighborhood. Oh yeah. All again pretty hammered like finding again like 15 of us like grab better be hammered grabbing Pokemon as we’re going around out there. It was just like I’m out of Charizard. No, dude. It was Yeah, it was it’s exactly what it was. And so like Vegas, if you’re an NBA person and if you’ve never been to Vegas, go. Oh, it’s going to be a ton of fun. Young Hansen will be the the big uh big attraction outside of Cooper Flag. Excited for that. But um the downside of it now is that it’s not what it used to be. It used to be the summer league. Yeah. Summer League used to be like the most open event known to man. It’s like everything else in life now. It’s become so much more commercialized and it’s about marketing and yeah, it’s less about the basketball and more about branding because like players that you know aren’t playing in summer league stars will all go down there because Nike has their thing, Adidas has their thing, Gatorade has their thing, Tiso has like Oakley like it’s just brand brand autograph. It’s all marketing marketing. It’s like Tops will probably be there. Yeah. Panini. Yeah. Like all that kind of stuff will all all be a part of it. And look, I get it. It’s a part of the money. It’s more money goes in the league, more guys get paid. That’s great. But yeah, like I remember my very first ever summer league, I sat with Larry Bird. Holy S, dude. I watched a game with Kiki Vanway. That is legendary. Just congratulations. Shooting the S with like all-time greats that work in front offices and just putting me on to knowledge. Like, hey Larry, can I get a selfie? Like like they I remember watching with Kiki and he I was like he’s like, “What do you think of this player?” And I was like, “Oh, this.” He’s like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” He was and I was like, “Well, what’s funny is, you know, front offices, they’ll they’ll always ask you, but they’re always hesitant to give you what?” And I was like, “What do you think?” And he’s kind of smiling. He’s like, “All right.” And then we just he got comfortable with me. We just started talking. And like that’s like that’s how I developed relationships in the NBA. It was just it started at summer league. I had, you know, um, shout out Dwight James. Been here a long time. Legendary reporter. People feel their way. They went around Dwight. Dwight is the nicest, kindest, cuddliest teddy bear human on the face of the plan. give you the shirt off his back. Dame’s rookie year was my first ever summer league and and Dwight showed me the ropes like and that’s the thing is like that was the part of thing of like summer league. It was like a very easy spot to learn. Yeah. Like and and be exposed like for me like initially in media like going into scrums and like how to ask questions and when to just shut up. Still haven’t learned that ditto. But it’s like summer league was just this really cool surreal experience. It’s like you could just walk by like uh was it three years ago uh watching a game, Jerry West is sitting directly in front of me. The logo is sitting directly in front of me having conversations and the things that I want to share, but like I could hear what they’re talking about in front of me and I’m like, yo, this is wild. Like this is this is the logo. This is like this is NBA royalty right here. Like being a fly on that wall is that is special. And that’s more what it used to be. Like those occasions are just so few and far between now. That sucks. Well, there’s just so much more visibility on it now. Like you used to go down to Thomas and Mac and like the arena wasn’t full. When you go down there now, when Cooper Flags on the court, that building’s going to be full. Tickets are probably near 100 bucks, which they were. Get in like I think it was 70 bucks a day. Wow. I mean, that’s not bad, but that gets you in for the day kind of a deal. Okay. Get in before was like 20, 30 bucks. But yeah, like that’s the thing is again everything else used to be cheaper. Everything was like it was one of the coolest events in in sports. Yeah. Because you would be eye to eye with the next stars of the league and the the past stars would be around and the the biggest, you know, movers and shakers in the league are all there and it was just this really it still is cool. That’s part of the reason why I’m going is yeah, you still build relationships and and and uh you know, make those, you know, introductions and exchange information and all those kind of things like but you also get, you know, a lot of the OGs in the sport, not just on the basketball side, but the media side like I don’t really go anymore just because it’s not what it used to be. I mean, Vegas in general doesn’t seem like what what it used to be, but but I get that. Uh since we’re kind of on the summer league, we’ll push the dame conversation to the next seg. What do you expect since you are going down there uh in person, you’re going to see Young Hansen, what do you expect to see growthwise from him? And I guess what are some indicators for you that will show you, okay, no, the Blazers were on the right track with this draft pick. And that’s the thing is honestly I I don’t know. Uh I I mentioned that I’m up to nearly 6,000 words on the uh the deep dive write up. Like I want to establish a baseline. And that’s the thing is like where is he at in comparison to NBAish players? Like that’s the question that I have. Like I think you’re going to see some moments where you go, “Oh, damn.” And you’re going to see some moments you go, “Oh, damn.” Like I think you’re going to see both. And the the thing about summer league, if you’ve never watched, and trust me, I get it. It’s not the best basketball. It is not a place that is conducive to bigs. It is about guards and wings. It is about those guys showcasing because how bigs play it’s a lot of it takes time like how you integrate them, what you do with them. Myers had like 12 fouls one summer league game I remember in his rookie season. And Zack Collins is maybe the worst summer league player I’ve ever seen in my life. Uh Nick Batum looked horrible in summer league. It’s neck and neck. Oh my god. Nick was so bad that they were worried that he was going to go back overseas. Yeah. Um and then he ends up starting later that year because it like come training camp it all of a sudden flipped. I don’t know how. And that’s the thing is like, you know, especially when you’re talking about guys coming from overseas, it is so much being thrown at them. You have to take it with a grain of salt. Okay? Like that’s that’s just a part of the deal. The culture shock and for for Yang, he’s going to have all of the eyes of we talked about this yesterday. All of the eyes on ch from China are on him and it’s going to be a lot for him. There’s going to be a a gaggle of media. They’re going to follow him everywhere he goes. And so I’m very interested to see how he uh maneuvers through that, how he handles it. But on the basketball court, it’s like, let’s set a baseline. Okay. And then like if the baseline is if if if you know if the bar is the floor, fine. And then we work from there. Yeah. And that’s that’s the thing. It’s like I want to see where that bar is at because I can watch all the film and all the tape, but it’s it live action. And like when you’re talking about scouting in general, you can watch as much tape as you want to on somebody. If you haven’t seen somebody live, it just it doesn’t matter. Oh, I I can absolutely speak to that. You have to have that part of it to really kind of get it. And like that’s where like with guys like Cooper Flag and Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper, having spent all week with them at Hoop Summit, I had a very at least for me. It was an intimate view of what they do. You know, and it wasn’t just watching them in games. I watched them in practice. I watch how they warm up. I watch how they talk with their their teammates. I watch how they talk with their coaches. Like there’s so much that comes out of that. That’s that’s the that’s the cool thing about summer league is you get to go there and you get to be right there in the middle of everything on top of everything. So I’m I’m excited honestly. It’s it’s actually the uh first summer league that I’ve looked forward to for the Blazers in quite a bit because yeah the the questions about young Hansen are immeasurable quite large. Anybody who thinks they have an answer right now you’re you’re crazy because you just don’t know. And what if he comes out and has like a Webinama type of first game? Remember how much crap people were giving Victor Webbbyama? Yeah. He wasn’t good and it was a bad opener in some way. And then game two, he was an absolute demon. Yeah. So like that again box score stuff like Ace Bailey already at the the the California Classic. He was god awful in game one and then last night he was stunting on dudes. It just takes some time maybe for some of these guys. It’s adjustment man that you want and that honestly to get comfortable. That’s what you want to see. Like you want to get you want to see a guy like VJ Edum coming out just like an absolute monster in game one. You’re like all right he’s good. I I’ve mentioned this story before. the Devin Booker graduation game. It was was against the Trailblazers. Uh God, there was a guy from the uh oh god, he ended up getting a criminal case on him. Uh but he was with the Blazers for a summer league. I can’t remember his name now. I’m totally blanking, but he was talking a whole heap of mess to Devin Booker. And it was in the back gym in the auxiliary gym at Thomas and Mack and was it Cox Pavilion? And um he book I think scored 24 points on him in a quarter. He just cooked him and he is ju I mean just talking cash ass just and that gym’s so small I can hear every word Book is saying and I’m like oh sweet Jesus he’s owning you kid he is just frying this and it was like and the the Phoenix coaches were just clearing it out and just letting him cook and it was like well and after that game Book shut it down. It was like that. That’s what you want to see from guys is like the guys that that have the goods, you play two really good games, three really good games. Bop, you never see summer league ever again. No. Show the goods and then take some shots during practice while the rest of the guys finish up the league. Yeah. Literally hanging around and just show on the bench. Yeah. But yeah. Oh wow. Well, uh I appreciate the insight there. Uh Blazers first summer league game is this Saturday if memory serves correct. So excited to see Friday Friday night games Saturday game. Friday night game and then a Saturday game back toback. It’s kind of late. Oh, I love that. But it it works out well for me because I’m only going to be there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then flying back Monday morning. So, well, and I’ll be interested to see how Young Hansen suits up against competition in the NBA, albeit summer league, NBA backto back days. These are physical guys that he has never had to play that often against. Uh, so we’ll see. It’s going to be fun.

Trail Blazers insider Danny Marang gives his takes on what to expect from the Portland Trail Blazers during Summer League before he departs for Las Vegas to attend it.

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